Réginald Kimbalé

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Réginald Kimbalé is a survivor of the Congo Crisis who was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Background and life in the war
- 1.2 Life in Canada
  - 1.2.1 Arrival
  - 1.2.2 Today
2 External links
3 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Background and life in the war

As a young adult, and already being a high school teacher of French and English, he witnessed the beginning of the crisis. With some other teachers, they formed a group and decided to try to help end the country's corruption by making school plays about the situation. But soon, the rebels got very bad, and the fact that Kimbalé and his friends were in the eatern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo didn't help. Soon, they were all victims of public humiliations, beatings, salaries being taken away completely, and in some cases, murders. As many of the members of the group stepped out, some people, such as Kimbalé, stayed. Although, now being wanted by the rebels, Kimbalé decided to leave the town and head out for another one, with some other townspeople. The way to the other town was through over 350 kilometers of forest, which meant about 7 days of walking with barely any resources (the group couldn't use the roads because of the rebels). On the way, Réginald Kimbalé had to go through many great hardships, such as death of pregnant women and children and encounters with rebels, who literally killed random people in the group and let the others go. Although the Congolese man tried his best to avoid casualties, he could only do so much. Finally, the group (now smaller) reached its destination. Unfortunately to all of the group's efforts, the rebels had already reached the town.

[edit] Life in Canada

[edit] Arrival

After this, Kimbalé applied for immigration in many different countries. He got accepted in Canada, and although he started his life in an anglophone province, he later moved to Montréal, Québec. His first job in Canada was to shovel snow off a football field. Later, he got a job in the manufacturing domain, and then applied for a job as a teacher, although his diplomas were not recognized in Canada. So, he went to see a theater manager, and told him about his experience. The manager let him do his show, and at his first live show there were only about 3 people. Luckily, one of those people was able to get the word out about the show. Before he knew it, Kimbalé was a moderately well known theater actor. He continued doing shows, and even wrote a few songs, and in 2003 published a book, which was a collection of poems on the situation in Africa and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[edit] Today

Now, in his forties, the Congolese freedom fighter is working on a new book, and does some work on raising awareness on the fight that all must participate in. He still lives in Montréal, and hasn't been back to his home country ever since he left.